In fact, in 2011, researchers at Yale University found that Rhesus monkeys exhibit the same sort of intergroup bias that humans do. In experiment, they showed that the monkeys associated good thoughts with members of their group, and associated bad things with outsiders. One can easily imagine how these instincts have been beneficial to early humans, other primates, and other highly social animals that work in groups. Before any forms of early civilization, groups of people were sparsely scattered about, with no governments or laws, or societal norms. So, assuming that every visitor to the group comes in peace would make the group more vulnerable, and actually increase the chances that your genes don’t get passed down through your offspring. It is easy to imagine why it was a vital advantage to be wary of those who are different, or not in the same group. But at least with humans, this is not the case any more. The world is getting smaller and smaller every day. Today, one can fly to the other side of the world in less than a day. We can communicate to anyone, anywhere, instantaneously. Our cultures, and our various races, are smashing together all across the world, and have been for a long time. The rates of interracial reproduction have been on a steady incline, and over time, human beings’ appearances will be more even homogenous. Our social universe has evolved exponentially, in an extremely short period of time, especially during and after The Industrial Revolution. This infinitesimally small point in history represents a massive increase in rates of population, and our rate of migration over the Earth. Our tendency to be prejudiced evolved over incredibly long period of times, and in a relative bat of the eye, this characteristic ceased being a beneficial value in our modernized, connected, small world. On the contrary, we’ve seen it cause an immense amount of harm, with things like oppression, segregation, racism, murder, mass genocide, and war. It is also easy to think of a possible history where belief in a higher power or an afterlife was beneficial to survival. Consider a man in the wild, alone, in grave danger, with no remaining family members, stuck in a predicament that seems impossible to get out of, with no way to contact anyone. Is it possible that a belief that he is supported and watched over by a higher power would muster up more will and determination to stay alive? It does not seem absurd to imagine that as a possibility. We see this benefit from such a belief today, in accounts from religious people who worked through a seemingly impossible scenario, and assert that their faith in God helped them through the predicament. When times are tough, every human likes to feel that they are not alone, that there is some way to understand the situation, and that they have help behind them. We are highly social animals, with a great need for companionship. Tom Hank’s character in Cast Away, Chuck Nolan, could have just as easily adopted God as his companion, but instead chose a volleyball, whom he named Wilson. With no intention to insult religion, I feel the example highlights the same general human need. In our early history, predicaments like the one described were a lot more common than they are today, and belief in a higher power might have played an even more important role.. In a time where the globe was only sparsely populated with humans that had little understanding of the cosmos or their physiology, mysteries of
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